1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent image forming apparatus, a speed to print an image on a print media such as a paper sheet is improved. On the other hand, according to an increase in a data amount of the image, it takes time to perform raster image processing (RIP) to develop the image to a print image (raster image). Therefore, and there are increasing cases where a RIP time becomes slower than a print speed and the RIP cannot catch up with the print depending on an image content. Especially, in a case where a continuous paper sheet is printed, when the print is too late, idle feeding of the paper sheet is generated and the paper sheet is wasted.
In order to reduce the waste of the paper sheet, for example, in JP 2010-629 A, a speed necessary for the RIP (RIP speed) is calculated by performing the RIP of a measured amount which is previously set. At this time, when the RIP has ended or when the calculated RIP speed exceeds the print speed, the print is immediately started. On the other hand, when the RIP speed is slower than the print speed, the print is started after the RIP is performed until the print time becomes longer than the remaining RIP time.
However, after all, a solution to a problem is not to perform the print until the RIP ends in the related art. The conventional problem is that a RIP speed does not catch up a print speed. In this way, since the idle feeding can be prevented, the waste of paper sheets is reduced.
However, in the related art, when there is not enough capacity in the memory to store the images to which the RIP is performed, there is a problem in that the print is immediately stopped and productivity is deteriorated.